Out of Place
by Camille H
Summary: Kagome goes back home for the week and can't help feeling out of place with her friends in the future. Slight InuKa


**Out of Place**

Summary: Kagome goes back home for the week and can't help feeling out of place with her friends in the future. (Slight InuKa)

* * *

"Bye, everyone!" I called out with a quick last wave as I jumped into the well, leaving my injured companions behind. My stomach did the familiar flipping as the blue light flashed and I was carried back to my own time.

A few days ago we had a confrontation with Naraku that left as all worse for wear, even little Shippou... But no one was as badly injured as Inuyasha, and I was very worried about him until two days ago, when he finally got around to being able to move more than a few inches. Now that he was able to walk around (he _insisted_ he was perfectly fine), I asked him if I could go back home for the week- we wouldn't be able to travel much anyway and, really, were we going to run into Naraku anytime soon? I convinced him, and bribed him with ramen, that it would be okay for me to go home. Besides that, I had nearly fully recovered, having received only a few bruises, scratches, and one gash on my stomach; I admit that Inuyasha had protected me exceptionally well (as he always does.)

I climbed out of the well easily, my yellow backpack not nearly as full as usual as it had been nearly a month since I was last home. As I shut the well house door behind me, a soccer ball whizzed past my head, leaving me stunned.

"Holy crap..." I muttered, putting a hand to my chest as I took deep breathes. I didn't get home even five minutes ago, and already Souta had tried to kill me. What a welcoming.

"Kagome!" Souta's voice came from some feet away. Though he had nearly hit me, I turned around with a grin on my face and he nearly winded me as he hugged me, running towards me like a maniac. It hurt a bit, but I ignored it; it was great to see him again and I really missed all of them, especially Mama. It's been kind of hard always being without her in the Feudal Era... We don't get to spend much time together anymore and I could definitely use her advice on things with Inuyasha and raising Shippou.

"I've missed you so much! During soccer practice- guess what I did! I kicked the ball at the coach's head! He was really angry, but I apologized, so he forgave me- during the last game I scored _four_ goals!" He continued rambling about soccer practices and games as I nodded enthusiastically, having slung my arm around his shoulders and walking into the house. The first person I saw inside was Gramps, asleep on the couch with a ton of wards around him. I grinned at the site.

"Gramps, wake up!" Souta shouted, abandoning my side to shake him awake. Mama walked in as he roused. I walked over to her and hugged her while she told me how glad she was that I was back and dinner was almost ready...

* * *

During dinner, we sat at the table like we used to, including Buyo pawing at our legs for food. (And you wonder how he got so fat?)

Souta had dominered the conversation for a while, before it was my turn to tell some stories about my adventures in the past this time (I excluded all the gory stuff- they didn't need to worry anymore than they already did), and after that Mama shared who she had run into at the grocery story earlier- an old friend, named Takako, that I couldn't remember the face of. Then... Boy, oh, boy... Gramps told us all about some shrunken demon claw that he had found in the musty storage room out back. Disgusting, even for me, a girl who gets covered in demon guts so often.

After dinner (how I missed Mama's cooking!), I took a shower- cut short by a phone call from Eri. Apparently, she was wondering how my terrible case of hyperhidrosis was going and if the medicine had stopped all the sweating yet. _Hyperhidrosis_! I didn't even know that existed until that night. I could only wonder what everyone at school thought of me... A sick, sweating freak. Great job, Gramps.

She eventually invited me to get together with her, Yuka, and Ayumi, to see a movie tomorrow night, after I assured her that I wasn't sweating profusely anymore. I consented, happy to be able to spend some time with them...

* * *

Blah, blah, blah... The movie, in one word, sucked. It was called _The English Patient_ (dubbed in Japanese) and the only thing that kept me awake during it was everyone's constant blubbering and chatting. Really, what the heck did they see in it? My mind kept wandering to the past... What was everyone else doing? What was _Inuyasha_ doing, more importantly, and was he still alright? I felt a deep longing to just leave the movie theatre and go back to the past, where there were several more interesting things than this movie. I think even what a worm does would be better to watch than the movie.

I felt so... Disconnected, lost, even, when I was with my present-day friends. All they talked about were grades and boys and make-up and movie and clothes. There's a lot more to life than that. I was so confused listening to them talk on the way to the movie theatre, I kept feeling like I was fading- I couldn't hear properly and everything seemed to just jumble around and words flipped and sentences flopped. I wondered for a few minutes if I was falling off my rocker, but I just summed it up to the simple fact that I really didn't seem to belong here anymore...

* * *

I decided, three days of school, a study date with the girls, and one of Souta's soccer matches later, that I really _didn't_ belong to the future anymore. The past was my future instead.

In school, I couldn't focus well. Especially during math. That was like the period from hell, honestly. Nearly every question I answered was wrong, aside from history questions on the feudal era, of course. That was the only part I grasped during class. Everything else seemed so far out of my league, out of comprehension. I know I'm not stupid- far from it, but I just couldn't get my mind off of the past. Maybe there's a disease for that, too.

During the study date, well, I wasn't doing so well then, either. I practically only watched the girls talk and giggle together. It felt like I had never even existed in this time, like I was only a stray passerby who occasionally glimpsed through some window that showed things from my supposed life. A stranger, an absolute stranger. That's what I was. I couldn't understand my friends anymore and they couldn't, and never would again, understand me. At that moment I felt like I had wasted nearly my whole life, growing up in a place that I would ultimately never belong to again. Why couldn't I just have been born in the past? I wouldn't have to deal with this old futuristic life of mine that, at one point, was all I ever had, everything that I imagined.

Such feelings, I realize, are nonexistent in most people. They belong to something or someone, and go about their days nearly mechanically and content. I hadn't had that in a while, every day in the past had been like an ever-lasting adventure and every day in the future just felt, well, weird- not normal. The past had come close to normal, for me, recently. I traveled with friends who I love and respect and we were an odd, mismatched family...

* * *

"Thank God," I muttered as I climbed out of the well and onto nice, fresh grass. I set my bag down before I flopped face-down onto the grass, spreading out my arms as if I were hugging it. It had been a long, long, _long_ week, let me tell you.

"What the fuck are you doing?" ... Inuyasha. Oh, goodness, he probably thought I was a complete loon then. I sat up and looked at him, a big, silly grin on my face.

"I'm back! Aren't you glad to see me? I'm glad to see you!" I said, standing up and hugging him. I didn't care that he stiffened, or that he grunted, or that he only gripped my shoulders with his hands (I think he was trying to decide whether or not to push me off of him, honestly.)

I let go of him after a few seconds of squeezing him tightly and went to pick up my bag, stuffed full with ramen for him, but he swung it over his shoulders instead. We walked back to the village together. He kept bumping his hand against mine, so I grabbed his hand to hold it. I think he was blushing.

Boy, I was glad to be back.

* * *

Author's Note: Yay or nay? I haven't written anything but poems in a while, so forgive me for grammatical or spelling errors. If you see any, tell me! :) Reviews are certainly appreciated, but not necessary.


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